F 

576 

.P24 

1897 


PARKMAN  CLUB  PUBLICATIONS 

No.  18 

Milwaukee,  Wis.,  Sept.  14,  1897 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN 


By  John  Nelson  Davidson 


Printed  for  the  Parkman  Club  by  IJdward  Keogh 


Ouke  University  Library 


DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN 


AND  THE  UNDERGROUND  RAILROAD. 


What  there  was  in  Wisconsin  of  the  actual  holding  of 
Negroes  as  slaves  was  merely  an  incidental  rather  than  a pur- 
posed extension  of  a system  that  had  its  strength  elsewhere. 
Slavery  had  triumphed  in  Missouri,  and  as  some  of  her  citizens 
became  emigrants  northward,  it  was  almost  a matter  of  course 
that  at  least  a few  of  them  would  take  their  Negroes,  and  that 
the  old  relation  of  master  and  slave  would  continue  for  a time 
in  practical,  though  not  legal,  existence.  However,  when 
slavery  exists  because  the  enslaved  do  not  assert  rights  which 
the  community  wherein  they  live  will  help  them  to  maintain, 
we  may  be  sure  that  it  will  not  last  long.  So  that,  as  related  to 
the  first  Negroes  brought  to  Wisconsin,  we  have  a story  of 
liberation  rather  than  one  of  continuance  in  bondage. 

And  yet  the  history  of  Negro  slavery  in  Wisconsin  is  not 
fully  told  in  the  preceding  Parkman  Club  paper  of  that  name. 
Not  only  have  we  additional  facts  in  regard  to  certain  indi- 
vidual masters  and  slaves  therein  mentioned ; we  have  also 
some  other  instances  of  slavery  and  several  of  emancipation. 
Let  one  case  of  doubt — that  in  regard  to  William  Horner1  and 
his  Negroes — be  made  clear  by  Mrs.  George  H.  Cox  of  Lan- 
caster, Wisconsin: 

“Mr.  Horner  brought  four  grown-up  persons  and  two  chil- 
dren with  him  from  Virginia,  and  when  Mr.  Horner  left  here  to 

1 Of  whom  Mrs.  Cox,  writing  under  date  of  1896,  December  8th,  says: 
“He  told  me  that  Governor  Horner  was  a very  distant  relative.” 


212 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN 


return  to  Virginia,  he  left  those  colored  people  in  comfortable 
circumstances,  and  now  some  of  them  are  well  off. 

“A  few  years  after  Mr.  Horner’s  arrival,  a gentleman  from 
Missouri,  a Mr.  Ross,  came  with  several  colored  people  that 
used  to  be  his  slaves.  He  settled  them  all  [so  that  they  were] 
quite  comfortable,  and  now  there  is  quite  a colony  of  colored 
people  near  Lancaster,  well  behaved  and  industrious.  [They] 
attend  schools  and  churches.” 

Of  the  emancipation  of  slaves  by  Ross  and  Horner,  and  of 
the  compulsory  liberation  of  a woman  held  as  a slave  at  Potosi, 
we  have  an  interesting  account  by  Mr.  John  Lewis,  also  of 
Lancaster. 

“I  came  to  Grant  County,”  he  writes,  “in  1842  as  a perma- 
nent citizen;  had  been  in  the  Territory  in  1840;  moved  from 
Missouri. 

“In  reply  to  your  first  question  as  to  holding  slaves,  I would 
say  that  a man  by  the  name  of  Woolfolk2  moved  from  Mis- 
souri to  Potosi  (Snake  Hollow  it  was  called  then),  and  brought 
a Negro  woman  with  his  family,  who  served  him  as  a servant 
for  many  years.  On  his  removal  back  to  Missouri,  he  was 
going  to  take  the  woman  back,  and  the  opposition  of  the 
citizens  prevented  the  taking  her  back. 

“Horner  brought  some  blacks  from  Virginia.  They  were 
the  property  of  his  wife.  They  were  given  homes  in  lands 
deeded  to  them.  Some  of  the  younger  stock  are  hereabout 
yet. 

“At  about  the  commencement  of  the  war,  Mr.  Ross,  an  old 
and  highly  respected  citizen  of  Lincoln  County,  Missouri, 
brought  to  the  neighborhood  a family3  of  blacks  consisting  of 
about  ten  or  fifteen  grown  persons,  for  whom  he  bought  land 
and  located  them  on  it,  and  made  his  home  near  them  and  died 

2 According  to  Mr.  Seaton,  the  name  should  be  spelled  Wolfolk. 

3 The  term  “family”  seems  to  be  used  here  as  meaning  all  the  slaves 
belonging  to  one  man. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


213 


there.  He  was  buried  in  Lancaster  graveyard.  His  wife,  who 
died  in  Missouri,  made  a wish  that  their  blacks  should  be  liber- 
ated, and  he  religiously  carried  out  her  wish.  These  are  the 
people  you  allude  to  when  you  mention  Slabtown  inhabitants, 
I suppose.” 

It  would  seem  that  no  one  now  among  the  living  has  a 
wider  knowledge  of  persons  once  held  as  slaves  in  Wisconsin 
than  has  J.  W.  Seaton,  Esq.,  of  Potosi.  “I  knew  General 
Jones’s  niggers  well,”  he  wrote  me;4  “Paul  Jones,  who  sued  for 
wages  and  died  here  of  cholera  in  1851  [or]  1852;  Lex  (or 
Alexis)  Jones  Godar;  Rachel,  his  wife,  called  then  ‘Aunt 
Rachel’  (I  wrote  her  obituary  some  years  ago,  and  have  a 
copy;  she  came  from  Kaskaskia,  Illinois;  she  was  chamber- 
maid on  a steamboat);  ‘Jule’  Godar,  Lex’s  brother;  he  died  at 
the  poor  farm. 

“Ross  and  Cobb  brought  their  slaves  here  at  the  opening  of 
the  war — some  twenty  or  thirty  of  them,  large  and  small.  He 
settled  them  on  a farm  west  of  Lancaster,  and  gave  them  their 
freedom.  They  were  owned  by  Ross.  He  lived  with  them 
till  he  died.  I knew  them  well,  and  see  some  of  the  younger 
ones  now  occasionally.  Simpson  Oldham,  an  early  settler, 
came  from  Missouri  here  and  brought  a slave  with  him,  which 
he  kept  till  he  died;  and  [Asa  Edgerton]  Hough,  I think,  had  a 
boy  which  Ben  Wood  took  to  California  in  ’49  and,  report  says, 
brought  back  to  Missouri  and  sold.” 

Indirectly  a dead  hand  contributes  to  our  paper — that  of 
General  Jones  himself.  In  a letter  addressed  to  Edward  Pol- 

4 Under  date  of  1896,  December  7th,  when  he  wrote  also  of  the  foreman 
of  the  jury  in  the  Paul  Jones  vs.  G.  W.  Jones  case:  “The  Christian  name 
of  Williams  was  Freeman,  though  everybody  called  him  ‘Free’  Williams. 

*  *  * * The  name  Freeman  Williams  would  scarcely  be  known  by  his  old 
friends  and  acquaintances.  He  died  at  Ellenboro,  this  county,  in  the 
spring  of  1891.  This  I get  direct  from  a member  of  the  family.  He  was  a 
hard  drinker  most  of  his  life,  that  is,  took  sprees;  and  was  rough,  uncouth 
character,  but  sharp-witted  and  wild.” 

In  connection  with  this  subject,  Mr.  Lewis  has  a remark  in  regard  to 
the  man  who  furnished  the  wolf  that  brought  the  jury  so  hastily  to  an 
agreement:  “I  * * * personally  knew  Mr.  Graham,  the  wolf-catcher, 
and  bought  skins  from  him;  have  passed  his  farm  many  times.  He  died 
on  his  farm  near  Platteville.  I do  not  remember  his  Christian  name.” 


214 


NEGRO  SLA  VER  Y IN  WISCONSIN. 


lock,  editor  of  The  Tetter,  Lancaster,  Wisconsin,  the  old  gentle- 
man revived  memories  of  the  time  when,  by  order  of  Secretary 
Seward,  he  was  confined  for  a time  in  Fort  LaFavette,  and 
added:  “Seward  knew  that,  although  I was  politically  an  anti- 
abolition Democrat,  I had  liberated  Paul,  who  sued  me  at  Lan- 
caster for  his  freedom  (in  1842,  about),5  by  persuasion  of  Doty, 
Burnett,  Wilson  (General  James)  et  al., — although  I had  liber- 
ated Paul,  his  three  nephews,  his  sister  Charlotte,  and  some 
seven  or  eight  other  slaves  whom  I brought  from  the  South,  at 
their  own  request,  to  Sinsinawa  Mound.” 

One  of  General  Jones’s  former  slaves  continued  to  make  his 
home  for  a time  near  Sinsinawa  Mound.  Fie  had  a large 
infusion  of  Caucasian  blood,  and  bore  the  name  of  Proctor. 
Ffe  was  respectable  in  appearance  and  occupation,  and  is 
remembered  distinctly  by  former  residents  of  Fairplay.6  He 
afterward  removed  to  Dubuque,  Iowa. 

It  is  pleasant  to  close  this  part  of  our  narrative  with  these 
words  from  Alonzo  Cragin,  Esq.,7  of  Joplin,  Missouri,  formerly 
of  Dubuque:  “It  was  stated  that  the  General  was  a kind 

master,  and  I believe  it.” 


6 In  the  former  paper  on  this  subject,  I gave  the  date  as  1838.  In  so 
doing  I followed  the  statement  of  the  editor — to  me  unknown— of  the  His- 
tory of  Grant  County  (Western  Historical  Company,  Chicago).  The  year  as 
given  by  General  Jones  is  much  more  probable. 

0 Among  others,  by  my  mother,  Mrs.  Mary  Leavitt,  lately  and  for  six- 
teen years  matron  of  Doane  College,  Crete,  Nebraska;  and  her  brother, 
Mr.  John  Nelson  of  Oakland,  California. 

“I  remember  not  only  Proctor,”  writes  another  brother,  Mr.  James 
Nelson,  of  Bullard's  Bar,  California,  “but  many  other  slaves,  as  two  men, 
one  with  a wife  and  family,  owned  by  Gregoire,  who  had  a furnace  for 
smelting  galena,  on  the  Menomonee,  on  the  road  from  Fairplay  to 
Dubuque;  also  the  Heaths,  who  lived  at  Elk  Grove,  had  slaves.  In  fact, 
the  early  emigrants  were  from  the  South  in  large  excess,  and  brought 
their  slave  property  with  them  as  any  other  property,  not  deeming  it 
‘peculiar’  or  different  from  their  other  possessions.  Of  course,  this  was 
before  the  anti-slavery  agitation  had  assumed  much  force  or  had  become 
the  issue  which  very  soon  it  was  in  the  politics  of  the  country.” 

It  was  probably  Augustus  L.  Gregoire,  a brother  of  General  Jones's 
wife,  who  owned  the  furnace  and  may  have  owned  the  slaves.  Yet  I think 
it  more  possible  that  these  belonged  to  General  Jones.  In  neither  of  my 
two  interviews  with  General  Jones  did  he  speak  of  Gregoire’s  holding 
slaves,  though  he  made  mention  of  him.  The  omission  that  I mention 
may,  however,  have  been  merely  a lapse  of  memory — General  Jones  was 
then  a very  aged  man — or  there  may  have  been  failure  on  my  part  to  make 
inquiry. 

7 Who  also  wrote  in  regard  to  Proctor. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


215 


General  Jones  died  1896,  July  22d.  Requiescat  in  pace. 
In  an  historical  sense,  he  belonged,  while  yet  living,  to  the 
world  of  the  dead.  A digression  may  be  pardoned  that  will 
give  us  a vivid  idea  of  the  part  of  Michigan  that  is  now  Wis- 
consin, as  it  was  almost  seventy  years  ago.  At  nearly  eighty 
years  of  age,  the  old  gentleman  was  still  a lover,  and  in  his 
letter  to  Mr.  Pollock  was  mourning  the  then  recent  death  of 
his  wife,  to  whom  he  had  been  devoted  from  his  young 
manhood: 

“I  brought  her  to  Sinsinawa  Mound  in  the  spring  of  1831, 
and  * * * took  her  into  the  log  cabins  (two)  which  I built 

there  in  March,  1828,  on  the  claim  (squatter’s  or  smelter’s) 
which  I made  the  year  before,  I carrying  up  two  of  the  corners 
thereof  myself,  putting  on  the  clapboard  roofs  and  the  plank 
floor  of  the  yellow  pine  boards  which  I brought  from  Ste.  Gene- 
vieve; also  making  the  one  door  and  [the  one]  window  in  same. 
These  two  cabins  were  built  from  the  stump,  and  I went  into 
them  to  sleep,  with  my  hired  French  boys,  and  to  live,  on  the 
second  night  after  they  were  commenced,  two  nights  having 
the  blue  sky  as  our  covering.  I had  never  done  work  before, 
except  to  chop  wood  and  to  mine  at  the  New  Diggings,  near 
the  present  town  of  Potosi;  then  mine  at  Burton,  in  Washing- 
ton County,  Missouri,  where  I built  a sawmill  about  six  feet 
long  for  my  amusement,  I being  a natural  mechanic. 

“My  father  was  the  first  supreme  judge  elected  in  the  State 
of  Missouri;  was  the  owner  of  slaves,  and  never  in  his  life 
asked  me  to  do  work.  Sq  it  was  with  my  beautiful  young 
wife;  but  we  were  pioneers  in  reality,  and  were  more  happy  in 
our  log  cabin  than  when  occupying  splendid  brick  buildings 
whilst  I was  a senator  in  Congress  or  as  minister  to  Bogota,  or 
when  we  lived  here8  in  our  beautiful  residence. 

“My  wife  received  and  entertained  my  friends  in  our  log 
hut  with  as  much  pleasure  [as]  and  more  than  when  we  lived  in 


In  Dubuque.  This  is  part  of  the  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Pollock. 


216 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


affluence,  taking  the  mattress  and  feather  bed  off  her  own  bed 
and  making  pallets  on  the  floor  for  Gov.  Henry  Dodge,  Judges 
J.  D.  Doty,  David  Irwin,  Jefferson  Davis,  Judge  Charles  Dunn, 
Henry  L.  and  A.  C.  Dodge, — the  latter  my  colleague  in  after 
years  in  the  United  States  Senate;  these  boys  et  id  omne, 
etc.,  etc.” 

It  is  to  be  seen  from  what  General  Jones  has  written  above 
that  the  surmise  in  the  preceding  paper  on  this  subject  was  a 
correct  one,  namely,  that  there  were  men  in  Wisconsin  in  1842 
who  knew  that  Negroes  were  held  here  as  slaves,  and  were 
determined  that  the  legal  freedom  of  these  people  should  be 
practically  recognized.  General  Jones’s  implied  condemnation 
of  these  men  for  this  action  has  given  them  an  honor  which, 
so  far  as  I know,  has  never  been  claimed  for  them  by  those 
who  have  written  of  their  lives. 

An  act  of  justice  on  the  part  of  one  man  has  rescued  his 
name  from  forgetfulness  in  connection  with  our  subject.  A 
narrative  of  his  life  would  be,  in  part,  a history  of  emigration 
in  the  United  States.  He,  too,  has  been  added  to  the  silent 
majority  since  the  preceding  paper  on  this  subject  was  pub- 
lished. His  death  gives  us  occasion  to  speak  again  of  Henry 
Barnes  Graves,  of  whom  his  son,  J.  Walter  Graves,  of  Lathrop, 
California,  wrote:8  “He  had  Judge  Mills  draw  up  papers  for 
freeing  a negro.  My  father  was  born  in  Virginia,  but  was 
raised  in  Kentucky.  He  moved  from  there  to  Missouri,  from 
thence  to  Wisconsin,  and  lived  between  Lancaster  and  the 
Hurricane  Grove,  on  Boice  Prairie.”  From  Wisconsin  Mr. 
Graves  removed  many  years  ago  to  California,  where  he  died 
1896,  November  10th.  His  place  in  Wisconsin  history  may 
be  a very  small  one,  but  it  is  altogether  his  own,  and  is  most 
honorable. 

Another  case  that,  so  far  as  I know,  is  sui  generis  in  Wis- 
consin history  is  one  of  which  I was  told  by  Deacon  Thomas 


9 Under  date  of  1896,  December  17th. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


217 


Davies,  of  British  Hollow,  near  Potosi.  His  wife,  Elizabeth 
Lyons  Davies,  did  me  the  favor  to  put  the  narrative  into 
written  form  :10 

“The  name  of  the  ex-slave  Mr.  Davies  told  you  about  was 
Mark.  His  master  was  Mr.  Firman,  of  Marion  County,  Mis- 
souri. Mr.  F.  had  mortgaged  Mark  for  debt,  and  to  keep  him 
from  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  mortgagee,  whose  name  we 
can  not  now  recall,  Mr.  F.  gave  Mark  his  free  papers,  and 
brought  him  to  Wisconsin.  When  Mark  had  made  money 
enough,  as  he  supposed,  to  buy  his  wife,  who  was  still  in 
slavery,  he  went  back  to  Missouri  to  buy  his  wife’s  freedom, 
and  was  seized  by  the  mortgagee  for  the  debt.  But  a lawyer 
named  Anderson,  and  a brother  of  Mr.  Firman,  took  an  inter- 
est in  poor  Mark’s  case,  and  somehow  they  rescued  Mark,  but 
could  not  get  back  his  money.  So  he  did  not  get  his  wife. 
After  that  he  came  to  Galena,  Illinois,  where  he  married  and 
lived  till  his  death.” 

A second  letter* 11  from  Mrs.  Davies  adds  these  interesting 
particulars: 

“Mr.  Davies  says  that  Mark  Firman  came  to  Wisconsin 
before  the  year  1850;  but  he  does  not  remember  just  the  date. 
What  he  does  remember  is  that  in  the  year  1843  a constable 
went  to  the  farm  of  Mr.  Firman,  in  Missouri,  to  sell  at  auction 
all  his  chattel-mortgaged  property  (Mark  with  the  rest),  and 
Mr.  Davies  was  one  of  about  three  hundred  men  of  that 
vicinity,  each  armed  with  a rifle,  ready  to  fire  on  the  first  man 
who  should  bid  on  any  of  the  things  offered  for  sale.  So  the 
sale  was  put  off. 

“Mr.  Davies  came  to  Wisconsin  in  1844,  and  the  next  year 
or  so  heard  of  a negro  man  living  about  three  miles  from 
Potosi,  who  had  come  from  Missouri ; this  man  was  Mark  Fir- 
man. In  1856  Mr.  D.  went  South,  and  then  heard  about  poor 


10  Under  date  of  1897,  September  29th. 

11  Written  1896,  October  6th. 


218 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


Mark’s  trouble.  So  it  all  happened  between  the  years  1843 
and  1856.” 

To  the  above  narrative  Mrs.  Davies  adds  another  of  painful 
interest.  The  Captain  Hough  of  whom  she  speaks  is  Asa 
Edgerton  Hough,  a native  of  New  Hampshire,  who,  after  resi- 
dence in  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  came 
to  Galena  in  1827,  and  thence  to  what  is  now  Grant  County, 
perhaps  in  the  same  year.  Mrs.  Davies  tells  her  story 
vividly:12 

“Captain  Hough,  of  Potosi,  who  owned  a slave  woman  and 
several  children,  came  with  his  family  and  his  slaves  from  Vir- 
ginia13 about  the  year  1837  or  1838,  and  is  not  yet  forgotten  by 
Potosi  people,  I think!  Captain  H.’s  youngest  daughter,  Mrs. 
Mary  McBride,  now  lives  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Captain 
Hough  was  a leading  Freemason;  his  wife  was  a Catholic. 
She  claimed  to  be  a descendant  of  Pocahontas,  and  her  com- 
plexion would  substantiate  the  claim.  They  had  two  sons  and 
two  daughters.  America,  the  bondwoman,  had  several  chil- 
dren, but  no  husband:  that  is,  none  with  her;  and  her  children 
were  of  various  complexions.  Two  of  them  went  to  the  same 
school  with  us  white  folks.  Our  teacher  was  Mr.  [C.  C.] 
Drake.  The  oldest  boy,  Felix,  was  dark  and  homely,  like  his 
mother,  America.  The  second  (I  can  not  think  of  his  name) 
was  not  very  dark  and  really  handsome.  One  dark  night  a 
little  Potosi  girl  heard  a woman  sobbing  and  moaning  bitterly, 
and  the  voices  of  children  crying,  as  they  were  being  driven 
rapidly  down  the  valley  towards  the  [Mississippi]  river!  That 
midnight  cry  is  not  yet  forgotten  ; it  helped  to  make  my  father, 
mother  and  myself  abolitionists! 

“The  next  morning  we  heard  that  poor  ’Merica  and  her 
children  had  been  taken  South. 

12  In  her  first  letter. 

13  Before  Mr.  Hough  himself  came  to  what  was  then  the  West,  a fire  in 
Washington  had  reduced  him  to  bankruptcy.  Did  he  buy  these  slaves  in 
Virginia  while  he  himself,  a native  of  New  England,  was  a citizen  of  a 
free  Territory?  Perhaps,  however,  they  were  his  wife’s  property.  If  not, 
I think  it  possible  that  Mr.  Hough  bought  them  in  St,  Louis. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


219 


“That  is  all  I remember  of  Negro  slavery  in  Wisconsin. 

“There,  now,  I do  remember  one  other,  ‘Black  Tom,’  a 
wretchedly  deformed  boy;  the  property  of  old  Mr.  Oldham, 
who  came  from  Missouri.  Old  Mrs.  Oldham  was  one  of  the 
first  members  of  our  church  [Presbyterian,  now  Congrega- 
tional, of  Potosi],  We  children  used  to  call  her  Aunt  Polly; 
she  was  so  kind  and  good  to  us  all.  But  Tom  the  Negro  was 
a poor  deformed  boy,  and  very  black. 

“I  remember  Mark  Firman  very  well ; he  used  to  come  to 
our  cabin-home  and  tell  mother  his  troubles.  But  when  we 
were  eating,  he  would  take  his  plate  and  sit  away  from  the 
table : and  treat  my  mother  and  father  with  so  much  respect.” 

In  her  second  letter,  Mrs.  Davies  leads  me  to  infer  that  the 
Oldhams’  relation  to  Black  Tom,  even  if,  at  one  time,  it  was 
ownership,  became,  rather,  guardianship  and  care. 

“Mrs.  Polly  Oldham  was  the  stepmother  of  Simpson  Old- 
ham. I do  not  know  her  husband’s  name ; he  was  a very  old 
man.  I do  not  know  what  became  of  Black  Tom.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Oldham  had  a mulatto  girl  living  with  them,  but  whether 
she  was  a slave  or  not  I can  not  say;  I was  a very  little  girl 
then.14 

“My  recollections  of  Aunt  Polly  are  very  pleasant.  I was 
very  ambitious  about  going  to  school,  and  had  to  pass  their 
cabin  on  my  way. 

“I  was  often  distressed  at  seeing  Black  Tom  sitting  on  the 
ground,  chopping  wood  with  one  hand  ; I think  he  was  partially 
paralvzed.  But,  though  he  had  to  work  hard  and  was  not 
treated  like  white  folks,  they  were  otherwise  kind  to  him.  Our 
school  house  was  a cabin  belonging  to  Simpson  Oldham  and 
close  to  his  dwelling  house,  which  was  quite  a pretentious 
building  for  those  days.  Simpson  O.  had  no  slaves.  My 
favorite  companion  was  Simpson’s  second  daughter,  Margaret. 

14  It  may  re  that  this  woman  or  Black  Tom  himself  is  the  one  whom 
Mr.  Seaton  thinks  of  as  being-  the  slave  of  Simpson  Oldham,  of  whom  Mrs. 
Davies  expressly  states  that  he  “had  no  slaves.” 


220 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


From  Mr.  Seaton,  also,  I had  the  favor  of  a second  letter:15 
“I  regret  to  state  that  I am  unable  to  add  anything  to  Mrs. 
Davies’  pleasing  reminiscences.  She  was  here  in  an  early  day 
and  well  knew  all  the  early  settlers,  and  has  a tenacious  memory 
as  well  as  a ready  pen  to  describe  them.  I have  heard  of  all 
the  parties  she  describes,  and  knew  some  of  them,  especially 
’Merica,  and  General  Jones’s  family.16  They  all  lived  in  Potosi 
in  my  time.  Also  remember  when  Ross  and  Cobb  came  here. 
Think  their  names  were  William  Ross  and  John  Cobb. 
Am  of  the  opinion  Cobb  had  no  interest  in  the  slaves.  Tfe 
went  to  Farmington,  Missouri,  soon  after  the  war,  where  he 
died.  Ross  bought  a farm  west  of  Lancaster,  some  five  miles, 
where  he  took  his  family  (slaves)  and  lived  with  them  till  he 
died,  some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  since.  Ffe  was  very  much 
attached  to  them  and  they  to  him.  One  of  the  boys,  Alph, 
went  into  the  army  and  became  a preacher.  They  were  all 
intelligent.  Some  of  them  still  reside  on  the  place.  * * * 

“Allen  Wolfolk  brought  the  slave  woman  here.  He  built  a 
house  in  the  village.  James  A.  Wolfolk  was  a young  man,  and 
came  afterwards  and  engaged  as  a clerk.  He  was  a protege  of 
his  uncle,  Allen  Wolfolk. 

“Asa  Edgerton  Hough  is  the  correct  name.  They  [the 
Houghs]  had  a mulatto  named  ‘Bart’  that  B.  F.  Wood, 
Hough’s  son-in-law,  took  to  California  with  him  in  1849,  v^a 
the  isthmus,  and  it  was  reported  at  the  time  that  Wood  sold 
him.  I do  not  vouch  for  this.  Bart  was  a very  likely  boy,  and 
not  very  black.  George  C.  Hough,  son  of  Asa  E.  Hough,  is  a 
lawyer,  and  still  living. 

“As  I said  in  the  outset,  I cannot  add  much  to  Mrs.  Davies’s 
information.  She  is  the  better  posted,  being  an  early  settler, 
and  raised  here;  and  can  be  relied  upon.” 

15  Under  date  of  1897,  October  9th. 

is  By  “General  Jones’s  family,”  Mr.  Seaton  doubtless  means  some  of 
the  negroes  who  had  been  Jones’s  slaves.  I do  not  think  that  the  General 
himself  ever  made  his  home  in  Potosi. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  IVISCONS/N 


221 


“No  slavery  can  be  admitted  here.”  These  words  were 
written  in  regard  to  what  is  now  Wisconsin  by  a son  of  Ten- 
nessee,17 and  published  in  Nashville, — a paper  that  by  its  name, 
The  Revivalist , represented  the  mighty  religious  impulse  that 
beautified  with  salvation  the  region  lying  between  the  Allegha- 
nies  and  the  Mississippi;  between  the  Gulf  states  and  the  Great 
Lakes.  Some  of  the  men  whose  souls  had  been  heated  in  the 
fervor  of  that  time  came  to  hate  slavery  with  the  intensity  of 
religious  conviction.  And  unless  we  give  heed  to  their  feel- 
ings and  principles,  we  can  not  well  understand  their  actions. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  fact  that  Wisconsin  was  set- 
tled by  two  currents  of  emigration  distinct  in  origin  and  in 
course.  One  was  from  the  East,  and  came,  for  the  most  part, 
by  way  of  the  Great  Lakes  or  on  lines  of  travel  parallel,  in  a 
general  way,  thereto.  With  this  came  the  pioneers  of  the 
southeastern  part  of  the  State.  The  other,  chiefly  from  the 
states  that  are  situate,  in  greater  part  or  less,  within  the  valley 
of  the  Ohio,  and  from  Missouri,  followed  hither  the  route  of  the 
Great — more  strictly  speaking,  the  Everywhere — River,  the 
Indian  Mese  Zeebi,  or  traced  ill-defined  roads  leading  north- 
ward and  westward  over  the  broad  prairies  of  Indiana  and 
Illinois.  This  stream  of  emigration  spread  from  Galena  as  a 
center  over  the  entire  lead  region.  It  was  the  first  of  the  two 
in  point  of  time,  and,  for  years,  in  numbers  also  and  commer- 
cial importance.  In  large  part  it  came  from  the  states  in 
which  there  was  legal  slavery, — states  that  thus  paid  part  of 
the  penalty  of  their  sin  in  the  loss  of  many  of  their  best  citizens, 
who  preferred  to  find  for  themselves  and  for  their  children 
homes  where  there  was  neither  master  nor  slave.  With  some 
of  these  emigrants  dislike  of  slavery  was  due  to  their  perception 
-of  the  fact  that  it  degraded  labor,  and  that,  though  it  was  profit- 
able'to  individuals  of  a favored  class,  it  was  a loss  to  the  com- 

17  That  state  was  then  regarded  as  Western  rather  than  Southern. 
Moreover,  the  strange  frenzy  which  later  sought  to  stifle  all  expression  of 
anti-slavery  opinion  did  not  then  fully  prevail  even  in  the  South  itself. 


222 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


munity  as  a whole.  With  others  who  sought  Northern  hopies, 
abhorrence  of  slavery  was  a religious  principle.  Some  of  these 
men  were  among  the  founders  of  Wisconsin,18  and  to  them  for 
no  small  part  of  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  which  has  so  honor- 
ably distinguished  our  state,  she  owes  a debt  of  gratitude  not 
yet  fully  acknowledged.  These  men  were  not  disunionists  like 
the  overpraised  Garrison.  And  when,  in  the  dark  days  of  the 
pro-slavery  rebellion,  the  second  really  great  President  of  the 
United  States  needed  the  sympathy  and  help  of  every  loyal 
man,  they  did  not,  like  Wendell  Phillips,  speak  of  him  as  “the 
slave-hunting  bloodhound  from  Illinois.”10 

But  others  came  to  Wisconsin  besides  those  who  hated 
slavery.  The  spirit  of  intolerance  and  bitterness  which  slavery 
necessarily  produces  came  North  with  many  even  of  those  who 
did  not  wish  to  live  where  the  “peculiar  institution,”  as  it  was 
sometimes  absurdly  called,  had  legal  existence.  “Why  do  you 
stay  at  that  abolition  hole?”  asked  Judge  Dunn  of  General 
Jones,  speaking  of  an  hotel  at  Lancaster,  and  prefixing  to 
“abolition”  a word  of  cursing.  And  General  Jones,  perhaps  to 
be  near  his  friend,  did  not  stay  there  any  long'er.  “The  niggers 
will  get  a pull  now!”  said  the  wife  of  a petty  politician  of  Fair- 
play,  Grant  County,  standing  on  an  election  day  in  the  door- 
way of  her  home,  and  purposely  speaking  so  as  to  be  heard  by 
some  anti-slavery  voters  who  were  passing  by.  “Trials  of 
mockings”  like  these  were,  for  some,  very  hard  to  bear.  At  the 
semi-centennial  celebration  of  the  Platteville  Congregational 
Church,  Rev.  Truman  Orville  Douglass,  secretary  of  the  Iowa 
Home  Missionary  Society,  recalled  the  fact  that  in  his  boyhood 


18  The  writer  is  glad  to  make  mention  here  of  a man  of  this  class,  a 
native  of  Kentucky,  Benjamin  Kilbourn,  a resident  for  more  than  sixty 
years  of  the  Wisconsin  lead  region  (died  1890,  March  8th).  Honorable,  gen- 
erous and  devout,  his  memory  is  one  to  be  cherished  by  all  who  knew  him. 

19  Let  no  one  think  that  I fail  to  honor  these  men.  Notwithstanding 
their  errors, — and  these  were  many  and  great, — they  did  a work  that 
helped  to  save  our  nation.  But  one  reason,  perhaps,  why  they  had  so 
much  to  do  was  because  they  created  rather  than  disarmed  opposition. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


223 


he  and  others  of  his  grandfather’s  family,  on  coming  into  the 
village,  were  often  greeted  with  the  doggerel  refrain : 

“Abolition  holler, 

Three  feet  wide; 

A nigger  in  the  middle, 

A McCord  on  each  side!” 

Deacon  James  Bennett  McCord,  of  the  Platteville  Congre- 
gational Church,  a native  of  Georgia,  was  the  son  of  a man  who, 
because  of  his  hatred  of  slavery,  found  a home  on  Northern 
soil.  The  son  settled  near  Platteville,  in  a neighborhood 
which,  from  him  and  others  like-minded,  came  to  be  known  as 
“Abolition  Hollow.” 

Another  McCord,  whom  naturally  we  know  better  by  his 
surname  Dixon, — Alvin  McCord  Dixon, — was,  more  than  any 
other,  the  founder  of  the  Platteville  Academy,  now  the  Platte- 
ville Normal  School.  “He  was  the  first  student  to  enter 
Illinois  College.  While  living  in  Quincy,  after  his  graduation, 
he  served  as  conductor  on  the  underground  railway. 

“ ‘Where  no  one  heard  the  whistle 
Or  the  rumble  of  the  cars, 

As  the  darkeys  rode  to  freedom 
Beyond  the  stripes  and  stars.’  ”20 

But  if  the  men  who  by  personal  contact  with  slavery  had 
learned  to  hate  it,  were  the  first  in  what  is  now  Wisconsin  to 
bear  testimony  against  the  sin  of  human  bondage,  immigrants 
from  the  East  settled  a larger  portion  of  the  state  and 
had  a wider  influence.  Thus  with  both  tides  of  immigration 
into  Wisconsin  came  a flood  of  anti-slavery  conviction  that 
overspread  the  forming  commonwealth. 

Of  these  early  settlers,  New  York  furnished  a larger  num- 
ber than  any  other  state.  Many  of  these,  to  be  sure,  in  coming 
hither,  made  a second  removal  from  their  New  England  home. 
Yet  it  was  from  New  York  more  than  from  any  other  State  that 
there  came  to  Wisconsin  so  vital  a union  of  abolitionism,  with 

20  Rev.  Julian  H.  Dixon  in  Fiftieth  Anniversary,  Bloominyton  and  Blake’s 
Prairie  Churches. 


224 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


the  evangelistic  spirit  that  the  Church  was  the  best  friend  to  be 
found  by  either  slave  or  sinner.  For  this  we,  as  a State,  owe  to 
New  York  a greater  debt  than  for  shaping,  as  she  undoubtedly 
did  through  her  sons,  our  political  institutions. 

Of  all  those  whose  labors,  under  God,  produced  the  effect 
which  was  thus  projected  at  so  early  a time  into  our  embryo 
state,  none  wrought  more  powerfully  and  effectively  than 
Charles  Grandison  Finney.  It  was  fitting  that  the  sermons  of 
this  great  abolition  evangelist  should  be  read,  as  was  probably 
the  case,  to  the  little  company  of  Christian  believers  who  after- 
ward formed  the  First  Presbyterian,  now  Immanuel,  Church  of 
Milwaukee.  Later,  the  same  thing  occurred  when  the  First 
Congregational  Bethel  Church  (now  Plymouth)  of  Milwaukee 
was  organized.  It  was  one  of  the  spiritual  sons  of  the  great 
movement  in  which  Mr.  Finney  was  a leader  to  whom  the 
thought  came  to  found  a Congregational  Church  in  that  city. 
“The  Lord  told  me,”  was  the  way  in  which  the  good  man  him- 
self, Deacon  Robert  Love,  expressed  it.  There  are  those  who 
will  smile  and  those  who  will  sneer  at  what  will  seem  to  them  a 
fancy.  But  we  shall  not  understand  history, — or  anything 
else, — unless  we  bear  in  mind  not  only  the  great  truth  that  God 
does  guide  men,  but  also  the  important  fact  that  some  men 
believe  themselves  to  be  especially  conscious  of  this  guidance. 
And  the  men  who  made  Wisconsin  an  abolition  state  believed 
themselves  to  be  agents  to  do  a revealed  will  of  God. 

Among  the  reasons  for  organizing  this  then  new  church,21 
now  Plymouth,  was  the  belief  of  some  of  its  founders  that  the 
church  previously  established  in  Milwaukee  by  themselves  and 
others  of  substantially  the  same  religious  views  was  too  con- 
servative on  the  subject  of  slavery.  In  time  the  same  reproach, 
brought  against  Plymouth  itself,  was  one  of  the  causes  that  led 
to  the  organization  of  the  Free  Congregational,  now  Grand 

21  As  given  me  nearly  half  a century  afterward  by  Deacon  Daniel 
Brown,  then  of  Sheboygan,  who  with  his  brother  Samuel  and  the  wives  of 
both  helped  found  both  the  First  Presbyterian  and  Plymouth  churches. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


225 


Avenue.  But  it  is  not  likely  that  any  other  claimant  will  ever 
displace  Plymouth  from  its  position  as  the  first  church  in  Wis- 
consin the  organization  of  which  was,  in  part,  a protest  against 
slavery.  But  this  is  not  saying  that  it  was  the  first  anti-slavery 
church. 

What  people  really  believe  finds  expression,  commonly,  in 
their  religion  before  it  does  in  their  politics.  Certainly  the 
anti-slavery  feeling  in  Wisconsin  found  utterance  through 
some  of  her  churches  before  it  did  through  any  political  con- 
vention. This  priority  in  time,  as  well  as  the  comparative  neg- 
lect hitherto  given  to  the  religious  aspect  of  our  subject,  justify 
us  in  giving  here  special  attention  to  it.  Whatever  may  be 
true  of  other  parts  of  our  country,  most  of  the  early  churches  of 
Wisconsin  are  free  from  the  reproach  of  moral  cowardice  in 
dealing  with  the  subject  of  slavery. 

“Resolved,  That  it  is  high  time  for  Christians  to  arise  and 
give  their  testimony  against  the  soul-destroying  sin  of  slavery, 
and  to  refuse  fellowship  with  all  slaveholders  who  have  named 
the  name  of  Christ  and  those  who  abet  the  cause!”  To  our 
Baptist  friends  belongs  the  honor  of  having  adopted  this  reso- 
lution, the  first  of  its  kind,  so  far  as  I have  been  able  to  deter- 
mine, in  the  history  of  our  commonwealth.  It  was  in  the 
radical  atmosphere  of  Waukesha,  at  the  session  in  that  place  of 
the  First  Baptist  Association  of  Wisconsin,  held  1840,  Sep- 
tember 24th  and  25th,  that  this  action  was  taken. 

In  1839  (January  17th)  there  was  organized  at  Milwaukee 
the  Presbytery  of  Wisconsin.  Notwithstanding'  its  name,  it 
was  not,  strictly,  a Presbyterian  body.  It  soon  became  the 
Presbytery  of  Milwaukee,  and  in  October  of  1840  it  was 
merged  into  the  Presbyterian  and  Congregational  Convention 
of  Wisconsin.22  At  the  formation  of  this  convention  the 
thought  of  union  between  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 

22  Now  officially  styled  “the  General  Congregational  Convention  of 
Wisconsin.” 


NEGRO  SLA  VERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


2‘2G 

churches  and  ministers  seems  to  have  excluded  almost  every- 
thing- else.  That  accomplished,  the  fathers  and  founders  of 
those  churches  in  Wisconsin  expressed  their  anti-slavery  con- 
victions most  unmistakably.  “Resolved,”  they  said  in  their 
meeting  at  Beloit  in  October,  1841,  “that  in  the  view  of  this 
convention,  American  slavery  is  a sin;  that  it  is  a sin  of  such 
magnitude  that  all  who  practice  it  or  knowingly  promote  it 
should  be  excluded  from  our  pulpits  and  the  fellowship  of  our 
churches;  that  while  we  deprecate  all  harsh  language  and  rash 
measures  in  the  destruction  of  this  evil,  we  will  nevertheless 
avail  ourselves  of  all  suitable  measures  to  enlighten  and  correct 
the  public  mind,  in  regard  to  the  sin  of  slavery.”  The  adoption 
of  these  resolutions  probably  followed  an  address  on  the  subject 
by  Rev.  Moses  Ordway,  who  had  been  appointed  to  this  service 
when  the  convention  was  in  session  the  preceding  June  at 
Prairieville  (Waukesha).  Even  at  a meeting  before  that,  the 
subject  had  been  brought  forward,  and  thus  the  way  made 
ready  for  some  action  of  a significant  character  such  as  was, 
most  certainly,  the  choosing  of  Mr.  Ordway  as  the  one  tO'  give 
the  address.  Think  of  this  son  of  thunder  with  human  slavery 
for  a subject!  For  he  was  one  who,  in  rebuking  iniquity — as 
well  as  in  doing  a number  of  other  things — -did  not  fear  the  face 
of  man. 

Deeds  followed  words.  In  the  summer  of  1842,  a slave  girl 
named  Caroline  escaped  from  St.  Louis.  She  was  so  white  that 
she  went  openly  by  steamboat  to  Alton,  Illinois,  mingling 
freely  and  unsuspectedly  with  some  white  girls  who  were  on 
their  way  to  an  academy  or  school  of  some  kind  in  Alton. 
There  a colored  man  suspected  her  of  being  a fugitive,  told  her 
it  was  not  safe  to  stay  in  Alton,  and  got  her  started  by  stage  for 
Milwaukee.  Before  leaving  her  master’s  home  Caroline  be- 
came possessed — honorably,  let  us  hope,  but  not  take  the 
trouble  to  ask — of  $100.  A silver  key  unlocks  many  doors, 
and  she  got  to  Milwaukee.  Here  she  found  friends.  Her  pur- 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


227 


suers  also  found  helpers,  one  of  whom  was  a Negro  barber  who, 
for  a time,  sheltered  Caroline,  but  agreed  to  betray  her.  His 
treachery  was  baffled  by  a colored  boy.  An  attorney,  H.  N. 
Wells,  who  had  been  approached  by  Caroline’s  pursuers,  gave 
warning  that  they  were  in  town.  At  night  Asahel  Finch,  for 
many  years  a prominent  attorney  of  Milwaukee,  and  a leading 
man  in  Plymouth  Church,  took  the  girl  across  the  Milwaukee 
River.  She  was  hidden  all  the  next  day  under  a hogshead,  or 
something-  of  the  sort,  near  (what  is  now)  Grand  Avenue. 
Thence  She  was  taken  to  the  home23  of  Samuel  Brown.  He 
took  her  to  the  home  of  Samuel  Daugherty,  a Baptist  brother, 
living  northward  of  Pewaukee.  Thence  she  was  taken  by  Ezra 
Mendall  to  Deacon  Allen  Clinton’s,  near  Prairieville.  All  this 
time  a reward  of  $300,  a great  sum  for  those  days,  was  hanging 
over  her  head.  So  sure  were  her  pursuers  that  she  was  some- 
where in  Prairieville  that  they  had  watched  the  house  of  Rev. 
O.  F.  Curtis  all  one  night. 

Prairieville  was  then,  in  pro-slavery  parlance,  an  “abolition 
hole.”  Of  those  who  gave  it  that  character  none  was  more 
determined  than  Deacon  Ezra  Mendall  of  the  Congregational 
Church.  In  something  more  than  slang,  though  the  words 
sound  like  it,  he  might  be  described  as  a “holy  terror.”  He 
was  a man  of  fervent  piety,  unflinching  courage,  and  great 
physical  strength.  Before  his  conversion  he  had  been,  it  is 
said,  something  of  a pugilistic  fighter.  To  him  and  to  Lyman 
Goodnow,  of  the  same  church,  was  entrusted  the  duty  of  taking 
Caroline  to  a place  of  safety.  They  did  not  know  where  their 
journey  would  end.  It  proved  to  be  one  of  thirty  miles,  and 
was  made,  of  course,  in  the  night.  Conscientious  scruples 
about  keeping  the  Sabbath  did  not  prevent  these  men  from 
starting  on  a Sunday  evening.  At  the  first  place  to  which  they 
took  Caroline,  the  home  of  a farmer,  it  was  impossible  to  keep 
her,  for  the  threshers  were  expected  during  the  coming  day. 


23  At  part  of  the  old  family  residence,  1614  Fond  du  Lac  avenue. 


228 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


Thereupon  she  was  taken  to  the  home  of  Rev.  Solomon  Ashley 
Dwinnell,  who  thus  tells  part  of  our  story: 

“Early  of  an  August  morning  in  the  year  1842, 21  a loud  rap 
was  heard  at  our  door  at  Spring  Prairie,  Walworth  County.  I 
at  once  arose,  and,  upon  opening  the  door,  was  accosted  by 
Deacon  Ezra  Mendall,  of  Waukesha,  and  two  associates,25  with 
a slave  girl,  apparently  about  eighteen  years  old,  of  fine  figure 
and  light  yellow  complexion.  They  said  to  me:  We  have 
work  here  for  you.  This  girl  is  hotly  pursued,26  and  a large 
reward  is  offered,  and  many  are  out  hunting  for  her.  ' We  wish 
you  to  conceal  her  to-day,  and  to-night  remove  her  to  another 
place  so  that  she  cannot  be  tracked.  We  will  come  in  a few 
days  and  take  her.  We  must  leave  at  once  to  avoid  being  seen 
here  by  daylight.’ 

“As  they  arose  to  leave,  the  poor  girl,  looking  at  them 
anxiously,  and  with  an  expression  of  terror  that  I can  never 
forget,  inquired:  ‘Are  you  leaving  me  with  friends?  Am  I safe 
here?’  Giving  her  an  affirmative  answer,  they  took  leave.” 

This  done,  they  were  returning  homeward  when  Mr.  Good- 
now,  moving  his  feet  in  the  straw  with  which  the  bottom  of  the 
wagon  bed  was  covered,  found  therein  a big  butcher-knife.27 
“Deacon,  what’s  this?”  “Oh,”  was  the  answer,  “it’s  something 
I brought  along  to  pick  my  teeth  with.”  “You  can  guess,” 
adds  Mr.  Goodnow,  “what  he  intended  to  do  if  any  one  had 
attempted  to  capture  us.” 


24  Mr.  Dwinnell’s  pamphlet,  Wisconsin  as  It  TFos  and  Is,  says  “1843,”  but 
this  is  doubtless  a typographical  or  other  error.  All  other  printed  author- 
ities give  1842  as  the  year,  as  did  also  Mr.  W.  D.  Bacon,  an  early  resident  of 
Prairieville,  in  a private  letter  to  the  writer  of  this  note. 

25  “On  the  way  we  stopped  and  got  James  Rossman  to  accompany  us,” 
says  Mr.  Goodnow. 

26  Those  engaged  in  this  shameful  work  were  a lawyer  from  St.  Louis 
named  Spencer,  Jonathan  E.  Arnold,  Alexander  F.  Pratt  and  perhaps 
others.  Some  men  who  are  well  known  in  the  history  of  Wisconsin  would 
have  been  glad,  doubtless,  could  their  part  in  this  affair  have  been  for- 
gotten. 

27  Deacon  Mendall  was,  to  use  Mr.  Goodnow’s  words,  “a  famous 
butcher.”  But  that  was  among  farmers  who  had  to  kill  their  own  pigs. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


229 


“The  girl  was  concealed  during  the  day,”  continues  Mr. 
Dwinnell,  “and  the  following  night  was  placed  in  care  of 
Deacon  J.  C.  P.,  at  Gardner’s  Prairie.” 

But  in  Wisconsin  or  in  the  United  States  there  was  no  last- 
ing safety  for  the  fugitive.  Accordingly,  the  Abolitionists  who 
knew  of  the  case  made  up  a purse  for  traveling  expenses,  and 
sent  Mr.  Goodnow  to  take  the  fugitive  to  Canada.  Others 
besides  the  friends  at  Waukesha  interested  themselves  effect- 
ively in  the  same  way.  Among  these  were  Dr.  Edward  G. 
Dyer2S  and  Rev.  W.  R.  Manning,  a Baptist  clergyman.  A 
minister  of  the  Disciple  denomination  named  Fitch  accompa- 
nied Goodnow  and  Caroline  into  Illinois.  “I  was  steering,” 
says  Mr.  Goodnow,  “for  the  house  of  a man  named  Russell, 
who  was  a Methodist,  though  not  an  Abolitionist.  * * * 

Mr.  Russell  said  he  had  never  been  an  Abolitionist,  but  he  was 
more  than  willing  to  assist  any  human  being  to  freedom.  If 
that  was  being  an  Abolitionist,  he  was  one.  * * * I made 

him  a station-keeper  on  the  underground  railroad  which  I 
established  along  the  route.”  The  underground  railway  ran  in 
somewhat  zigzag  lines,  and  usually  had  Quakers  for  station- 
agents.  Mr.  Goodnow  also  bears  testimony  to  the  kindness  of 
such  Germans  as  had  not  become  “Yankeefied.”  The  first 
money  that  he  had  to  pay  was  the  cost  of  rowing  Caroline 
across  the  Detroit  River. 

Thus  it  was  that  the  first  fugitive  from  slavery, — the  first  so 
far  as  I know,- — who  sought  safety  by  way  of  Wisconsin,  was 
conveyed  to  what  was  then, — in  contrast  to  the  United  States, 
we  are  ashamed  to  say, — “the  land  of  the  free;  the  dominions  of 
the  British  Queen.”29 

Incidents  like  these  seem  to  belong  to  another  age  and  land. 
“The  better  years,”  to  quote  from  Bryant’s  Death  of  Slavery, 

28  Dr.  Dyer  removed  from  Cicero,  Onondaga  County,  New  York,  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Burlington,  Racine  County,  Wisconsin,  in  1839.  He  was 
the  first  practicing  physician  settled  in  that  vicinity.  For  this  informa- 
tion, and  for  other  favors,  I am  indebted  to  his  son,  Judge  Charles  E. 
Dyer,  and  to  Mr.  John  Goadby  Gregory. 

28  I adapt  the  expression  from  Mr.  Dwinnell’s  narrative. 


230 


NEGRO  SLA  VERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


have  already  carried  the  “great  wrong  into  the  shadowy  past.” 
We  realize  now,  better  than  our  fathers  and  elder  brothers  did, 
that  in  a very  true  sense  the  master  as  well  as  the  slave  was 
under  the  heel  of  a system  that,  if  it  would  live  at  all,  must  needs 
be  pitiless  and  inexorable.  These  characteristics  were  espe- 
cially manifest  in  the  pursuit  of  fugitive  slaves.  And  when,  as 
in  the  case  above  mentioned,  the  one  sought  for  was  a woman 
fleeing  from  what  would  likely  prove  to  be  a life  of  shame; — a 
woman  white,  almost,  as  were  or  might  have  been  the  sisters 
and  daughters  of  the  man  who  claimed  her  as  property,  what 
wonder  that  the  blood  burned  hot  in  the  veins  of  these  sturdy 
Abolitionists  of  the  generation  the  last  of  whose  number  are 
now  passing  away? 

“Peace  to  the  dead!”  said  Father  Clary,30  speaking  of  Presi- 
dent William  Henry  Harrison,  in  a Fourth  of  July  address  at 
Rockford,  Illinois.  But  he  did  not  speak  either  to  mourn  or  to 
praise  the  dead.  His  words  were  to  the  living,  and  of  their 
present  duty.  “Proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land,  unto  all 
the  inhabitants  thereof.”  “The  spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon 
me,  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to 
the  poor;  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach 
deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised.”  These  were  the  texts  from  which  this  prophet  of  our 
modern  time  delivered  his  message.  The  guilt  of  slavery,  he 
argued,  lay  upon  the  North  as  well  as  upon  the  South.  This 
having  been  proved,  he  cries  out : “Does  not  the  sin  of  slavery 

lie  at  our  door,  defile  our  consciences,  obstruct  our  entrance  to 
the  presence  of  a most  holy  God?  And  must  it  not  be  repented 
of  before  we  can  meet  the  colored  man  at  the  bar  of  eternal 
justice  in  peace?” 

As  his  discourse  proceeds,  he  has  another  question  to 

30  Rev.  Dexter'  Clary,  then  pastor  of  what  is  now  the  First  Congrega- 
tional Church  of  Beloit;  and  afterward,  for  many  years,  superintendent  of 
work  in  Wisconsin  under  the  auspices  of  the  American  (now  Congrega- 
tional) Home  Missionary  Society.  This  address  was  published  in  the 
Liberty  Tree  of  February  1st,  1844. 


NEGRO  SLA  VERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


231 


answer:  “What  must  we  do  to  save  ourselves  and  our  country 

from  the  sin  and  curse  of  slavery?  I would  observe: 

“First,  we  must  stop  supporting  it, 

“By  not  cherishing  in  our  hearts  an  unholy  prejudice 
against  our  colored  brethren,  whether  bond  or  free. 

“By  not  returning  to  his  master  him  that  is  escaped  from  his 
master.  See  Deuteronomy  xxiii.,  15. 

“By  not  apologizing  for  the  sin  of  it  in  others. 

“As  a last  desperate  effort  to  prop  up  this  system  of  wicked- 
ness, the  slaveholder  and  his  Northern  apologists  go  to  the 
Bible.  To  such  I will  only  quote  from  John  Randolph,  who 
said:  ‘I  neither  envy  [envy  neither]  the  head  or  [nor]  the  heart 
of  that  man  who  rises  up  to  defend  slavery  from  principle.’  And 
from  Patrick  Henry:  ‘It  is  a debt  we  owe  to  the  purity  of  our 
religion  to  show  that  it  is  at  variance  with  the  law  which  war- 
rants slavery;’  and  he  adds:  ‘A  serious  view  of  this  subject  gives 
a gloomy  perspective  to  future  times.’  He  was  a slaveholder, 
yet  he  had  a conscience,  and  it  was  not  blunted  and  seared  as 
are  the  consciences  of  slaveholders  and  their  apologists  in  these 
times,  which,  like  the  hardening  of  Pharaoh’s  heart,  is  a sad 
presage  of  coming  wrath. 

“Neither  must  we  fellowship  it  in  our  churches,  at  our  com- 
munion tables,  or  in  our  pulpits ; nor  vote  for  pro-slavery  men, 
either  of  the  North  or  the  South,  to  make  or  maintain  slave 
laws. 

“We  must  stop  admitting  States  with  slavery  in  their  con- 
stitutions. All  these  things,  and  such  as  these,  we  must  stop 
doing.  Moreover,  if  we  would  be  saved,  and  save  our  country 
from  the  sin  and  curse  of  slavery,  we  must, 

“Second,  exert  what  moral  influence  we  have  for  its  over- 
throw. 

“Our  pulpits  must  not  be  muzzled,  but  speak  out,  open  their 
moral  batteries,  and  echo  the  thunders  of  heaven.  The  minis- 
ters of  the  Cross  must  cry  aloud  and  spare  not,  but  show  the 


232 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


people  their  transgressions  and  the  churches  this  sin,  this  great 
sin,  against  God  and  man. 

“The  press,  and  especially  the  religious  press,  must  scatter 
the  light  of  truth  over  all  the  land. 

“The  voice  of  churches  and  ecclesiastical  bodies  must  be 
uttered,  and  uttered  so  distinctly  that  none  will  misunder- 
stand it.  i 

“The  agents  and  boards  of  missionary  and  other  benevolent 
societies  must  refuse  to  receive  knowingly  the  ‘wages  of  oppres- 
sion,’ ‘the  price  of  blood,’  into  the  treasury  of  the  Lord. 

“These  and  all  other  means  of  exerting  a moral  influence 
must  be  used,  and  used  faithfully  and  perseveringly,  yet  kindly, 
in  the  spirit  of  love  and  the  spirit  of  prayer  to  the  God  of  the 
oppressed,  until  the  conscience  of  the  nation  shall  be  brought 
to  life  on  this  subject;  until  the  heart  of  philanthropy,  and 
benevolence,  and  true  patriotism  shall  again  beat;  and  our 
avaricious,  power-loving,  lust-indulging,  self-seeking,  God- 
forgetting,  prodigal  nation  shall  ‘come  to  itself,’  and  with  deep 
contrition  return  to  the  God  of  our  fathers,  to  become  His  serv- 
ants, and  obey  His  voice,  bidding  us  ‘let  the  oppressed  go  free, 
and  to  break  every  yoke;  to  proclaim  liberty  throughout  the 
land,  unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof.’  ” 

Mr.  Clary  next  pleads  for  the  right  use  of  political  influence, 
and  speaks  so  frankly  that  we  know  how  he  used  his  own. 
“While  I regret  the  necessity  there  is  that  Abolitionists  should 
organize  a distinct  party  in  politics  in  order  that  they  may  exert 
their  influence  at  the  polls  to  save  their  country  from  the  sin 
and  curse  of  slavery,  I must  say  I rejoice  that  a political  party 
is  organized  where[in]  not  only  Abolitionists  as  such,  but 
where[in]  Christians  can  exert  their  political  influence  con- 
scientiously. For  I regard  the  spirit  and  principles  of  the 
politics  of  the  day  as  being  anti-Christian.  I view  them  as 
being  rank  poison  to  the  spirituality  of  Christians;  and  it  is  a 
simple  matter  of  fact  that  in  exact  proportion  as  these  have 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


233 


entered  into  the  spirit  of  politics  they  have  lost  their  spirituality 
as  Christians.  The  spirit  of  political  abolition  is  not  so.  It  is 
based  upon  different  moral  principles  from  those  which  lie  at 
the  foundation  of  the  politics  of  the  day.  These  are  selfishness, 
love  of  power,  avarice,  lust,  oppression.  Those  are  benevo- 
lence, love  to  God  and  to  man,  a regard  for  human,  inalienable 
rights;  in  a word,  the  golden  rule.  Hence  Christianity  and 
pure  abolition  principles  are  one  in  moral  character;  so  are 
slavery  and  the  political  principles  of  the  day.  Hence,  also,  the 
principles  of  moral  and  political  abolition  and  the  principles  of 
the  fathers  of  the  Revolution  are  the  same;  while  the  spirit  and 
principles  which  now  oppose  abolition  are  one  with  those  of 
England  who  opposed  the  liberty  of  our  country.  The  men 
who  fought  for  the  liberties  of  their  country  carried  their 
religion  into  their  politics;  so  do  Abolitionists.  England  car- 
ried her  politics  into  religion,  and  corrupted  both ; so  do  slave- 
holders and  the  politicians  of  the  day.” 

In  holding  and  expressing  opinions  like  these,  Mr.  Clary 
was  not  alone.  In  the  year  of  this  address,  1843,  the  state  con- 
vention (of  churches)  of  which  he  was  a member  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolutions: 

“That  we  regard  the  anti-slavery  enterprise  as  being  based 
on  the  principle  of  the  gospel  which  requires  that  we  do  good 
unto  all  men;  and  as  such  it  commends  itself  to  the  sympathies, 
prayers  and  exertions  of  the  wise  and  the  good. 

“That  the  ministers  and  the  Church  of  Christ  are  bound  in 
consistency  with  their  profession  to  rebuke  all  sin,  to  labor 
earnestly  for  the  removal  of  oppression,  and  to  withhold  Chris- 
tian fellowship  from  all  those  who  persist  in  enslaving  or  hold- 
ing in  slavery  their  fellowmen.” 

As  already  stated,  Mr.  Clary  was  then  pastor  of  the  Congre- 
gational Church  of  Beloit,  now  the  First  Congregational.  This 
church  put  itself  on  record  in  condemnation  of  slavery  by  reso- 
lution passed  in  March,  1844.  This  action  was  of  especial  sig- 


234 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


nificance  in  view  of  the  fact  that  in  the  bosom  of  this  church, 
Beloit  Seminary  was  developing  the  life  that  was  afterwards 
absorbed  by  Beloit  College.  Incidentally,  I may  remark  that 
one  of  the  early  gifts  to  Beloit  College  was  a tract  of  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  acres  of  land  given  on  condition  that  no  student 
should  ever  be  denied  admission  on  account  of  his  color. 

But  of  all  places  in  Wisconsin,  Prairieville  seems  to  have 
been  most  intense  in  its  opposition  to  slavery,  and  the  Congre- 
gational Church  there  the  very  furnace  of  the  abolition  fire. 
Moulded  in  such  heat  were  the  resolutions  hereto  subjoined. 
They  were  adopted  by  the  church  1845,  March  1st: 

“Whereas,  Slavery  thrusts  a man  down  from  the  rank 
assigned  him  by  his  Creator,  denies  the  attributes  of  his  nature, 
and  all  the  rights  growing  out  of  them,  annihilates  the  distinc- 
tion which  God  has  made  between  men  and  things,  denies  to  its 
victims  the  freedom  of  their  will,  and  subjects  them  to  the  abso- 
lute and  arbitrary  control  of  depraved  and  selfish  beings,  thus 
excluding  the  moral  government  of  God  from  the  empire  of 
the  soul,  uproots  all  the  domestic  relations  and  sweeps  with  a 
desolating  stroke  over  all  the  cords  of  social  life,  withholds  from 
millions  in  this  Christian  land  the  lamp  of  life,  tramples  down 
the  great  Christian  law  which  requires  all  men  to  do  to  others 
as  they  would  have  others  do  to  them;  therefore, 

“Resolved,  That  American  slavery  was  rightly  named  by 
the  pious  John  Wesley  ‘the  sum  of  all  villianies.’ 

“Second,  That  we  will  not  admit  to  our  pulpit  or  com- 
munion, or  have  any  Christian  fellowship  with  any  person  who 
practices,  upholds  or  justifies  this  gross  system  of  iniquity. 

“Third,  That  we  regard  it  a solemn  duty  to  pray  and  labor 
in  every  righteous  way  to  effect  a speedy,  peaceful  and  entire 
overthrow  of  this  great  sin. 

“Voted,  That  the  clerk  prepare  a copy  and  send  to  the 
New  York  Evangelist  for  publication. 

“Meeting  adjourned  two  weeks. 


“E.  A.  Purple,  Clerk. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


235 


A church  that,  in  1845,  would  take  such  a stand  as  this  pos- 
sessed a spirit  that  was  ready  to  lead  it  into  very  independent 
and  radical  action.  It  invited  a colored  man  to  sit  as  member 
of  a council  called  to  aid  the  church  in  ordaining  and  installing 
a pastor.  And  the  Negro  thus  invited  was  not  a clergyman, 
but  a blacksmith.  Such  action  was  surely  radical  enough. 
And  yet  this  church  and  others  that  shared,  possibly  in  less 
degree,  its  feelings  in  regard  to  slavery,  were  in  practice  and 
doctrine  exceedingly  conservative.  They  were  ready  to  resent 
any  imputation  upon  their  orthodoxy.  In  order  to  understand 
these  men  and  their  principles,  we  must  put  ourselves  into  a 
Wisconsin  that  has  passed  away  as  surely  as  the  Boston  of 
Winthrop’s  time  has  passed  away.  In  1845  the  part  of  Wis- 
consin— except  Milwaukee — with  which  our  narrative  is  deal- 
ing was  a group  of  communities  possessing,  a homogeneous 
population  lately  come  from  regions  that,  not  long  before,  had 
been  permeated  by  a deep  religious  fervor.  Leading  laymen 
as  well  as  ministers  accepted  as  a matter  of  course  methods  of 
Christian  work  in  which  they  had  been  trained, — methods  such 
as  won  for  Finney,  Nettleton  and  others  that  intensity  of 
approval  or  of  condemnation  which  is  likely  to  be  roused  when 
men  feel  deeply  in  regard  to  great  interests. 

This  is  no  place  for  a dissertation  on  revivals.  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  they  are  mental  and  spiritual  phenomena  of  the  most 
profound  interest.  In  them  is  the  belief  that  moved  the 
prophets,  the  fear  of  judgment  that  found  voice  in  the  Dies  Irae, 
and  the  glad  yet  solemn  trust  of  those  majestic  hymns.  Rock  of 
Ages  and  Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul.  So  long  as  men  hear  the 
voice  of  God  speaking  to  the  soul,  there  will  be  revivals.  But 
they  will  never  be  understood  by  those  who  insist  upon  reduc- 
ing all  knowledge  of  God  to  formulae,  whether  of  mere  ritual  or 
of  the  intellect. 

It  was  with  this  revival  fervor  that  some  of  the  men  of  the 
Wisconsin  of  half  a century  ago  fought  against  slavery.  When 


236 


NEGRO  SLA  VERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


the  resolutions  that  appear  above  were  adopted  by  the  Wauke- 
sha church,  its  pastor  was  Otis  Freeman  Curtis.  Evidence  of 
some  of  these  things  that  I have  written  is  found  in  the  fact  that 
in  March,  1840,  when  Southport  (Kenosha)  contained  fifty- 
seven  families,  Mr.  Curtis  aided  in  revival  meetings  which  so 
affected  the  community  that  “after  the  close  of  the  meetings 
there  were  one  or  more  professions  of  religion  in  every  family 
except  two.”31  Later,  at  Waukesha,  he  led  in  a notable  move- 
ment of  the  same  sort,  and  this,  no  doubt,  as  well  as  the  rescue 
of  Caroline  which  followed  soon  after,  helped  to  put  upon 
Waukesha  the  anti-slavery  impress  that  can  never  wear  away.32 

To  the  most  prominent  member  of  the  Presbyterian  and 
Congregational  Convention  of  Wisconsin,  Rev.  Stephen  Peet, 
there  came  at  the  New  School  General  Assembly  of  1849,  a 
sharp  and  painful  test.  Among  the  few  slaveholders  in  that 
body  was  the  Rev.  James  H.  C.  Leach,  D.  D.,  of  Farmville, 
Virginia.  As  Dr.  Leach  was  chosen  to  be  one  of  those  who 
officiated  at  the  Lord’s  table  in  the  communion  service,  Mr. 
Peet  declined  to  receive  the  sacred  emblems.  This  action  on 
his  part  called  forth  at  the  next  session  of  the  Convention  a 
formal  vote  of  approval. 

To  the  strengthening  of  the  anti-slavery  cause  came,  in  the 
early  years  of  the  decade  before  the  war,  the  efficient  hosts  of 


31  Colonel  Michael  Prank. 

32  This  sturdy  Abolitionist  was  born  1804,  July  6th,  in  a farmhouse 
almost  under  the  shadow  of  Dartmouth  College.  After  ordination  to.  the 
ministry,  182S,  October  23d,  he  labored  for  some  years  in  Vermont  in  the 
Congregational  ministry.  Then  he  entered  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  “for  the  sake  of  greater  freedom  in  revival  work,”  and  remained 
in  connection  therewith  apparently  about  seven  years.  During  this  time, 
in  1835,  a journey  of  2,300  miles,  by  way  of  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Illinois — a journey  beginning  in  September  and  ending  the  28th  of  October — 
brought  him  to  Canton,  Illinois,  whence,  after  a winter’s,  or,  more  likely, 
a year’s  faithful  service,  he  removed  to  Chicago.  There  an  incident 
occurred  that  shows  in  what  condition  were  then  the  streets  of  that  city. 
In  the  spring  of  1837,  he  had  gone  one  Sabbath  to  the  little  church  where  is 
now  located  the  Clark  Street  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  opposite  the 
court  house,  and,  looking  through  the  open  door,  he  saw  the  overturning 
of  the  wagon  in  which  were  his  wife  and  children.  They  were  thrown  into 
mud  so  thin  and  deep  that  a four-year-old  boy,  now  Rev.  A.  W.  Curtis  of 
Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  went  down  in  it  entirely  out  of  sight,  and  but  for 
prompt  help  would  have  been  smothered. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  two  sons  of  this  anti-slavery  champion  are 
now  at  work  for  or  among  our  ex-slave  population.  Another  son  and  a 
grandson  are  missionaries  in  Japan. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


237 


the  .Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  In  September,  1852,  the 
Wisconsin  Conference  resolved  that  “we  are  more  than  ever 
convinced  of  the  great  evil  of  American  slavery,  and  hereby 
solemnly  pledge  to  each  other  our  best  efforts  and  ardent 
prayers  for  its  total  abolishment.”33 

The  greater  proportion  in  their  churches  of  members  from 
the  South  made  anti-slavery  action  on  the  part  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  people  more  difficult  that  it  was  to  the  Baptists,  the 
Congregationalists  and  the  (new  school)  Presbyterians.  But 
the  Methodist  abolitionists  Were  no  less  determined  and  per- 
sistent than  were  those  of  the  other  churches  that  have  been 
named.' 

It  can  not  be  denied  that  in  the  struggle  against  the  fugitive 
slave  law  and  ag'ainst  the  effort  to  make  Kansas  a slave  state, 
some  of  our  good  men  acted  like  fanatics.  For  one,  because  it 
is  true  and  was  inevitable,  I do  not  wish  to  deny  it.  The  cause, 
says  Dr.  E.  H.  Chapin,  that  never  produced  a fanatic  never 
produced  a martyr.  As  it  is  hard  to  be  always  temperate  while 
fighting  intemperance,  so  it  is  sometimes  hard  to  be  just  while 
opposing  injustice.  Doubtless  anti-slavery  zeal  burned  in 
some  of  our  churches  and  communities  until  it  reached  the  red- 
heat  of  intolerance.  “Surely  oppression  maketh  a wise  man 
mad,”  thought  the  late  Father  Clapp  of  Wauwatosa,  when, 
having  come,  as  a young  man,  into  the  membership  of  the  Mil- 
waukee Convention,  he  found  himself  confronted  by  resolutions 
so  radical  that  he,  though  a disciple  of  the  Joshua  Leavitt  school 
of  Abolitionists,  could  not  endorse  them.  Those  were  the  days 
when  even  such  men  as  the  late  President  Chapin  were  accused 
of  undue  conservatism.  No  doubt,  Wisconsin  needed  at  that 
time  some  men  who  incurred  such  a charge,  and  who  did  not 

33  This  was  better  than  the  Rock  River  Conference,— to  which  the  Wis- 
consin churches  at  first  belonged, — did  in  1841,  wheij,  "goaded  by  petitions 
from  the  laymen,  it  appointed  a committee  on  slavery,  but  responded  to 
the  petitioners  thus: 

"Resolved,  That  it  is  inexpedient  for  this  Conference  to  take  any 
action  on  the  subject  of  slavery.” — Bennett’s  History  of  Methodism  in  Wis- 
vonsin. 


238 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


deserve  it.  We  could  wish  that,  in  our  anti-slavery  struggle  in 
Wisconsin,  no  legal  process  had  ever  been  disobeyed.  We 
wish  yet  more,  that  none  had  been  of  such  sort  as  to  make  it 
seem  like  an  obligation  of  humanity  that  they  should  be  dis- 
obeyed. We  wish  that  no  Wisconsin  prison  had  ever  been 
entered  unlawfully.  We  wish  yet  more,  that  no  man  had  ever 
been  detained  in  one  for  no  offense  save  that  of  fleeing  from 
slavery.  Yet  the  very  things  thus  suggested  have  been  done. 
A man,  Joshua  Glover  of  Missouri,  a man,  though  colored  and 
a slave,  was  thrust  into  the  Milwaukee  county  jail.  Thither  an 
enraged  master  had  brought  him  from  Racine.  As  if  he 
desired  that  nothing  should  be  wanting  to  rouse  against  him- 
self a storm  of  righteous  wrath,  the  brutal  claimant,  it  is  said, 
struck  and  kicked  the  Negro  even  after  he  had  been  made  a 
helpless  captive.  And  we  are  told  that  the  unhappy  fugitive 
surrendered  without  resistance.  What  wonder  that  sons  of 
free  Wisconsin  felt  that  it  was  right  for  them  to  burst  open  the 
prison-house  of  the  slave?  It  was  on  the  nth  of  March,  1854, 
that  this  was  done.  As  might  be  expected,  the  Negro  was 
taken  to  Waukesha.  There,  of  course,  he  found  friends,  none 
more  active  and  helpful  than  those  of  the  little  church  that  has 
won  so  honorable  a place  in  this  narrative.  One  of  these  took 
him  back  to  Racine,  whence  he  escaped  to  Canada. 

Then  followed  an  attempt  to  enforce  upon  his  rescuers,  or 
at  least  upon  the  more  prominent  of  them,  the  penalties  of  the 
fugitive  slave  law.  From  the  legal  point  of  view  the  men  who 
helped  Glover  to  escape  were  undoubtedly  guilty.  Judge 
Andrew  Galbraith  Miller,  of  the  United  States  District  Court 
for  Wisconsin,  had  certainly  reason  for  thinking  that  if  the  law 
was  to  be  anything  but  a dead  letter,  these  men  must  be  pun- 
ished. But  their  case  was  really  that  of  the  people  of  Wiscon- 
sin, and  a people  can  neither  be  indicted  nor  put  on  formal  trial. 
These  offenders  against  a United  States  statute  sought  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin,  and  received  all 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


239 


that  could  constitutionally  be  given, — and  perhaps  a little  more. 
But  the  state  court  stopped  just  on  the  verge  of  attempted  nul- 
lification of  the  fugitive  slave  law  in  Wisconsin. 

In  justice  to  Judge  Miller,  it  ought  to  be  said  that  his  aim 
does  not  appear  to  have  been  the  infliction  of  penalty  upon  all 
those  who  had  offended, — if  their  act  may  rightly  be  called  an 
offense, — but  only  upon  one  or  two  of  the  leaders.  Of  these 
none  was  more  prominent, — and  none,  perhaps,  more  willing  to 
be  so, — than  Sherman  Miller  Booth,  a man  who  suffered  loss, 
fine  and  imprisonment  because  of  his  connection  with  the 
Glover  case,  and  who  thus  came  to  represent  a cause  so  great 
and  so  good  that  no  man  could  be  wholly  worthy  of  it.  The 
story  has  been  often  told,  and  Mr.  Booth  yet  abides  among  the 
living. 

Less  dramatic  than  the  Glover  case,  but  of  thrilling  interest, 
is  one  the  story  of  which  was  told  me  by  the  late  Rev.  Jeremiah 
Porter,  D.  D.,  of  Beloit.  “It  was  secret  service  before  the 
Lord,”  wrote  his  wife  in  regard  to  the  hiding  of  some  fugitives. 
“From  what  place  in  the  South  they  came  I do  not  know,  nor 
how  they  escaped.  It  was  a father  who  started  with  three  chil- 
dren. But  death  was  the  unwelcome  companion  of  his  journey, 
and  one  of  the  children  died  at  St.  Louis.  I wish  that  some  one 
might  tell  the  story  of  their  journey  thence  to  Chilton  and 
Stockbridge.  This  was  while  Stockbridge  was  still,  in  part,  an 
Indian  settlement.  At  Chilton  the  fugitives  received  kindness 
from  one  of  the  leading  Democratic  politicians  of  the  State,  and 
from  others.  One  of  these,  we  may  hope,  will  yet  give  us  an 
account  of  the  fugitives’  life  there.  At  Stockbridge  they  were 
befriended  by  Mr.  Lemuel  Goodell, — no  doubt  by  others 
also, — who  sent  his  team  with  the  fugitives  to  Mr.  Roswell 
Norris’s,  at  Green  Bay.  Mr.  Norris  brought  them  to  Mr. 
Porter’s.  “At  midnight,”  wrote  Mrs.  Porter,  “we  were 
awakened  by  a knock  at  our  window,  and  there  stood  the  poor, 
trembling  father  and  his  cold,  hungry  children.  Where  can  we 


240 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


hide  them?  was  a practical  question,  for  the  boat  which  would 
take  them  to  Canada  had  been  delayed.  I asked  the  God  of  all 
wisdom  and  truth  and  love  to  direct,  and  during  the  act  of 
prayer  a text  of  Scripture  came  to  mind  which  suggested  the 
church.  ‘Yes,  that  is  the  place,’  Mr.  Porter  replied,  ‘the  belfry.’ 
There  they  stayed  during  the  day,  but  at  night  they  slept  in  the 
church.”  Mr.  Porter  brought  them  food,  supplied  in  part  from 
his  own  table.  Part  of  our  story  is  thus  pleasantly  told  by  a 
son  of  Deacon  Alonzo  Kimball,  Mr.  M.  D.  Kimball,  of  Mil- 
waukee, who  thus  wrote  under  date  of  1897,  October  5th : 

“My  father’s  part  [in  the  rescue]  was  in  furnishing  food  to 
the  fugitives,  and  in  engaging  their  passage  by  steamer  to 
Canada.” 

Another  family  that  had  part  in  supplying  the  bodily  needs 
of  the  fugitives  was  that  of  the  parents  of  Mrs.  Alma  Robb,  of 
Green  Bay,  who  wrote  of  her  father:34  “I  know  that  he  was 
active  in  the  underground  railroad  work,  as  it  was  called.  * * 

The  family  that  was  secreted  in  the  church  I , helped  to  cook  for, 
but  did  not  know  at  the  time  why  mother  was  having  so  many 
pies  and  doughnuts  made,  but  later  learned  all  about  it.” 

Another  whose  reminiscences  have  aided  me,  especially  in 
making  it  probable  that  1854  was  the  year  of  the  escape,  is  Mrs. 
Mary  Catherine  Mitchell  (born  Irwin),  of  Terra  Cotta,  Illinois. 
Her  daughters,  on  going  to  the  church  to  practice  music,  were 
frightened  at  unusual  sounds  proceeding  from  the  belfry,  and 
left  the  building. 

The  day  following  the  arrival  of  the  fugitives  was  Thursday, 
and  the  boat  was  due  that  afternoon.  That  day  of  anxiety 
passed,  and  P'riday;  and  still,  like  Poe’s  ghouls,  the  unhappy 
fugitives  were  dwelling  in  the  steeple.  But  on  the  last  day  of 
the  week  came  the  steamer  Michigan,  with  her  abolition  cap- 
tain. No  pursuers  had  appeared,  and  so  it  was  safe  to  lead  the 
fugitives  in  open  daylight  to  the  river,  where  Mr.  Frederick 


34  Under  date  of  1897,  October  1st. 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


241 


Lathrop  rowed  the  father  and  his  two  children  to  the  steamer. 
When  the  captain  put  them  ashore  at  Sarnia,  they  fell  upon  the 
earth  and  kissed  the  land  that  made  them  free. 

Another  story  of  escape  from  slavery  through  Wisconsin  is 
told  by  the  widow  of  the  late  Deacon  Russell  Cheney,  of  Emer- 
ald Grove.  The  year  of  the  occurrence  is  a matter  of  doubt. 
A son.  Rev.  Russell  Lea  Cheney,  judging  from  his  age  and 
childish  recollection,  thinks  it  was  about  1855  or  1856;  the 
mother  would  put  it  in  i860  or  1861.  But  in  the  latter  year 
there  was  no  attempt  at  enforcing  the  fugitive  slave  law  in  Wis- 
consin. Here  is  Mrs.  Cheney’s  narrative  :35 

“As  nearly  as  I can  recollect,  it  was  in  the  fall  of  ’6o  or  ’61, 
as  we  were  seated  at  the  supper  table,  there  came  to  our  door, 
near  the  close  of  a beautiful  Sabbath  day,  a closely  closed  cov- 
ered carriage,  in  which  were  seated  a family  of  escaped  slaves, 
consisting  of  a husband,  wife  and  four  children.  They  were 
brought  by  Mr.  Leonard,  a stanch  anti-slavery  man  of  Beloit, 
who  said  the  slave  hunter  was  closely  on  their  track.  He 
wished  Russell  Cheney  of  Emerald  Grove  to  take  charge  of 
them.  He  immediately  took  them  to  Simeon  Reynolds  (who, 
if  living,  is  in  Wichita,  Kansas).  Starting  as  soon  as  possible, 
Mr.  Reynolds  drove  rapidly  to  Racine,  a distance  of  sixty  miles, 
arriving  there  just  in  time  to  catch  the  outgoing  steamer,  before 
the  arrival  of  the  dreaded  slave  hunter.  Soon  after,  Mr.  R. 
received  the  glad  news  that  they  were  safely  landed  on  the  soil 
of  liberty  and  freedom. 

“Have  written  from  memory  the  facts  as  I remember  them; 

* 

the  dates  are  gone  entirely  from  memory.” 

Rev.  R.  L.  Cheney  writes:  “I  can  remember  the  curiosity 

with  which  we  went  out  and  peeked  into  the  carriage  at  the 
children.  * * * Father  conducted  the  party  to  Deacon 

Simeon  Reynolds,  who  lived  a few  miles  northeast  of  the 
[Emerald]  Grove.  He  went  with  them  to  Racine  or  Kenosha, 


35  Her  letter  is  dated  at  Janesville,  1897,  October  6th. 


242 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


I think  it  was  Racine.  Father  recommended  them  to  one  of 
his  friends,  who  called  out,  as  Mr.  Reynolds  reported  to  him, 
‘Do  you  want  any  firearms?’  But  in  my  mind  the  event  is 
present  only  in  barest  outline.” 

If  there  was  any  thought  of  firearms,  it  would  tend  to  prove 
that  the  time  was  still  one  of  danger  to  fugitive  slaves  and  to 
any  who  might  be  found  helping  them. 

“There  were  at  least  four  agents  of  the  Underground  Rail- 
road in  Kenosha,”  writes  Mr.  Frank  H.  Lyman  of  that  city. 
“They  were  Charles  Durkee  (afterwards  member  of  Congress 
and  United  States  senator),  Reuben  H.  Deming,  John  B.  Jilson 
and  William  H.  Smith,  all  now  dead.” 

From  Beloit,  Hon.  S.  T.  Merrill,  the  last  preceptor  of  Beloit 
Seminary,  writes  of  three  families  that  were  helped  to  freedom, 
two  of  them  by  the  late  Dr.  H.  P.  Strong,  a son-in-law  of  Father 
Clary.  As  the  fugitives  remained  in  Beloit,  it  is  probable  that 
their  escape  dates  only  from  the  time  of  the  war. 

The  story  that  has  been  told  in  these  two  papers  might 
indeed  end  without  confession  of  its  incompleteness,  for  that  is 
manifest.  But  mention  should  be  made  of  some  of  those  whose 
memory  gave  us  a great  part  of  our  narrative,  and  upon  whom 
death  has  put  the  seal  of  silence.  John  Myers  died  1895,  April 
16th.  So  writes  his  pastor,  Rev.  C.  A.  Wight,  of  Platteville. 
The  venerable  Lemuel  Goodell  of  Stockbridge  was  added  to 
the  silent  majority  in  1897,  April  9th.  “My  good, 
esteemed  friend,  Mr.  John  Lewis,  died  last  Sunday”  [1897, 
October  24th],  is  the  sad  word  in  a letter  received  from  Mrs. 
George  H.  Cox  of  Lancaster.  And  in  the  God’s-acre  of  that 
little  city  there  has  been  laid  to  its  rest  the  body  of  Judge  Mills, 
who  died  at  the  home  of  his  son  in  Denver,  Colorado,  1897, 
November  22nd. 

For  us  it  is  well  that  these  men  told  so  much  of  a story  that 
but  for  them  might  have  been  forgotten, 


NEGRO  SLAVERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


243 


After  the  manuscript  of  the  foregoing'  narrative  had  been 
made  ready  for  the  printer,  a letter  of  exceeding  interest  was 
received  from  Almira  Henshaw  Daugherty  (Mrs.  J.  W.  Wood- 
ruff), of  Avon  Park,  Florida.  She  tells  us  that  Caroline  was 
concealed  in  her  father's  house  for  two  weeks,  and  that  the 
hundred  dollars  with  which  the  poor  girl  started  from  St.  Louis 
was  the  gift  of  a grandmother  who  was  a free  woman. 

Mrs.  Woodruff  pays  a beautiful  and  deserved  tribute  to  the 
memory  "of  her  father,  whom  she  justly  regards  as  one  of  those 
who  impressed  upon  Wisconsin  its  strongly  anti-slavery  char- 
acter. He  was  one  of  the  choicest  gifts  of  New  England  to 
the  West.  His  fine  sense  of  honor  sacrificed  his  Massachusetts 
home  to  the  payment  of  another's  debts.  When  he  was  born 
(Shrewsbury,  Massachusetts,  1770),  his  father  was  a subject  of 
George  III.  Perhaps  it  would  not  do  to  say  a loyal  one,  for  he 
served  in  the  Continental  army  from  the  beginning  of  the  Revo- 
lutionary war  until  its  close.  The  best  part  of  his  pay,  appar- 
ently, was  a land-warrant.  He  went  to  seek  a “location,”  but 
dying,  probably  on  his  return,  his  friends  saw  his  face  no  more. 
Nor  did  his  family  ever  learn  where  the  property  was  that  he 
had  secured.  His  son  Samuel,  that  he  might  do  all  he  could  for 
himself,  left  home,  with  his  mother's  consent,  before  he  was 
eleven  years  old,  and  went  to  live  with  a man  who  treated  the 
boy  almost  as  if  he  were  a slave.  Regard  for  his  pledged  word 
kept  Samuel  from  that  ready  resource  of  a lively  boy, — running 
away.  Naturally,  the  young  man  came  to  sympathize  deeply 
with  those  who  were  wronged,  and  this  feeling  was  deepened 
during  a time  spent  in  Virginia,  when  "he  first  saw  a slave 
auction  of  women  and  children,  and  separation  of  families.  One 
dear  babe  was  held  by  the  auctioneer,  the  child's  little  leg-  in 
right  hand  and  his  plump,  bare  shoulder  in  the  other,  while  the 
auctioneer  shouted,  ‘How  much  is  bid  for  this  little  nigger?’ 
pinching  and  turning  him  the  while.  The  baby’s  poor  mother 
stood  near,  saying,  ‘Massa,  let  me  buy  him;  I will  get  the 


244 


NEGRO  SLA  VERY  IN  WISCONSIN. 


money!  I will,  for  sure,  make  it  nights;’  the  manager  telling 
her  to  ‘shut  up.’  All  this  so  wrought  upon  Mr.  Daugherty 
that  he  then  and  there  resolved  to  fight  this  gigantic  and  cruel 
evil  while  life  lasted.  He  said,  the  last  day  of  his  life,  ‘I  think, 
perhaps,  the  Lord  is  going  to  let  me  live  to  see  a Republican 
President.’  But  he  died  March  2nd,  1861,  two  days  before  the 
inauguration  of  President  Lincoln.”  Surely  Mrs.  Woodruff 
has  made  us  her  debtors  for  the  story  of  the  life  of  such  a man 
as  Samuel  Daugherty. 

General  Harrison  Carroll  Hobart,  of  Milwaukee,  has  inter- 
esting recollections  of  fugitives  who  sought  shelter  at  Stock- 
bridge.  The  man  with  the  two  children  he  probably  befriended, 
though  he  does  not  say  so,  and  his  recollections  of  the  matter 
are  indistinct.  But  he  distinctly  remembers  another  man  who 
came  to  Stantonville  (now  Calumet),  put  up  a shanty,  and  lived 
there  for  a time.  Thither  came  his  master  after  him  and  the 
darkey  fled  to  Stockbridge.  The  master  followed  him.  Among 
the  Indians  then  living  at  Stockbridge  there  is  an  admixture  of 
Negro  blood.  The  fugitive  found  friends  among  the  Indians 
and  others,  who  joined  in  telling  the  master  that  he  would  bet- 
ter leave  the  settlement.  He  did  as  they  wished,  and  the 
darkey  got  off  safe. 

Another  who  came  to  Stantonville  and  lived  for  a time  in 
the  shanty  built  by  the  one  who  made  his  escape  was  not  so 
fortunate.  Lie  went  to  Sheboygan,  shipped  there  for  Chicago, 
and  there  was  taken  and  presumably  sent  South.  At  any  rate, 
he  was  never  seen  again  in  the  place  where  he  once  found 
shelter  and  freedom. 


JOHN  NELSON  DAVIDSON. 


PARKMAN  CLUB  PUBLICATIONS. 


No.  L 
No.  2. 

No.  3. 

No.  4. 

No.  5. 

No.  6. 
No.  7. 

No.  8. 
No.  9. 

No.  10. 
No.  11. 

No.  12. 
No.  13. 
No.  14. 

No.  15. 
16. 

No.  17. 
No.  18. 


Nicholas  Perrot;  a Study  in  Wisconsin  History.  By  Gard- 
ner P.  Stickney,  Milwaukee,  1895.  16  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 
Exploration  of  Lake  Superior;  the  Voyages  of  Radisson  and 
Groseilliers.  By  Henry  Colin  Campbell,  Milwaukee, 

1896.  22  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

Chevalier  Henry  de  Tonty;  His  Exploits  in  the  Valley  of 
the  Mississippi.  By  Henry  E.  Legler,  Milwaukee,  1896. 
22  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

The  Aborigines  of  the  Northwest;  a Glance  into  the  Remote 
Past.  By  Frank  T.  Terry,  Milwaukee,  1896.  14  pp., 
paper;  Svo. 

Jonathan  Carver;  His  Travels  in  the  Northwest  in  1766-8. 
By  John  G.  Gregory,  Milwaukee,  1896.  28  pp.,  1 plate, 
1 map,  paper;  8vo. 

Negro  Slavery  in  Wisconsin.  By  Rev.  John  N.  Davidson, 
Milwaukee,  1896.  28  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

Eleazer  Williams;  His  Forerunners,  Himself.  By  William 
Ward  Wight,  Milwaukee,  1896.  72  pp.,  portrait,  and  four 
appendices,  paper;  8vo. 

Charles  Langlade,  First  Settler  of  Wisconsin.  By  Mont- 
gomery E.  McIntosh,  Milwaukee,  1896.  20  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 
The  German  Voter  in  Wisconsin  Politics  Before  the  Civil 
War.  By  Ernest  Bruncken,  Milwaukee,  1896.  14  pp., 
paper;  Svo. 

The  Polanders  in  Wisconsin.  By  Frank  H.  Miller,  Milwau- 
kee, 1896.  8 pp  , paper;  Svo. 

PSre  Rene  Menard,  the  Predecessor  of  Allouez  and  Mar- 
quette in  the  Lake  Superior  Region.  By  Henry  Colin 
Campbell,  Milwaukee,  1897.  24  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

George  Rogers  Clark  and  His  Illinois  Campaign.  By  Dan 
B.  Starkey,  Milwaukee,  1897.  38  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

The  Use  of  Maize  by  Wisconsin  Indians.  By  Gardner  P. 

Stickney,  Milwaukee,  1897.  25  pp.,  paper;  Svo. 

The  Land-Limitation  Movement.  A Wisconsin  Episode  of 
1848-1851.  By  John  Goadby  Gregory,  Milwaukee,  1897. 
24  pp.,  paper;  8vo. 

'A  Moses  of  the  Mormons.  By  Henry  E.  Legler,  Milwaukee, 

1897.  67  pp.,  paper;  portrait,  four  illustrations,  appen- 
dices, 8vo. 

Claude  Jean  Allouez,  the  Apostle  of  the  Ottawas.  By  Rev. 
Joseph  Stephen  LaBoule*  Milwaukee,  1897.  29  pp.,  paper; 
map;  8vo. 

Negro  slavery  in  Wisconsin  and  the  Underground  Railway. 
By  Rev.  John  Nelson  Davidson. 


IN  PRESS, 

Letter  of  the  Rev.  Cutting  Marsh  Regarding  a Visit  to  the  Sacs 
and  Foxes  in  1834.  Edited  by  William  Ward  Wight. 

Cooperative  Communities  in  Wisconsin,  by  Montgomery  E.  Mc- 
Intosh. 

The  German  Voter  in  Wisconsin  Politics  (Part  II,  including  the 
period  to  the  Civil  War),  by  Ernest  Bruncken. 


IN  PREPARATION. 


Legler,  Henry  E. — Wisconsin  Nomenclature. 

Stickney,  Gardner  P.— Bibliography  of  Wisconsin. 

Publication  Committee— Henry  Colin  Campbell,  Henry  E.  Leg- 
ler and  John  G.  Gregory. 


The  Parkman  Club  was  organized  December  10th,  1895,  for  study 
of  the  history  of  the  Northwest.  A limited  number  of  copies  of  each 
publication  are  set  aside  for  sale  and  exchange.  Single  copies  are 
sold  at  the  uniform  price  of  25  cents,  and  the  annual  subscription 
(ten  numbers)  is  placed  at  $2.00. 

Correspondence  may  be  addressed, 

Gardner  P.  Stickney,  Secretary, 

427  Bradford  Street,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 


